Process of annealing glass



June 2 1925- 1,540,264

K. M. HENRY PROCESS OF ANNEALING GLASS File oct. 11, 1922 ENQ TH /A/ F557 450 A T/ME #Wim/AL WMM/Urss Patented June 2, 1925.

4 UNITED STATES PA TENT y OFFICEA KENNETH M. HENRY, 0F SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR ILLINOIS-PA- `CIFIC GLASS COMPANY, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, .A CORPORATION lO'F l CALIFORNIA.

To all whom t may concern: j

Be it known that I, KENNETH M. HENRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city and county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes of Annealing vGlass,ofwhichkthe following is a specification. j

This invention relates' to the annealing of glass and has for its object to shorten the time` required for annealing and to insure uniformity in the product. n

The term annealing is not used in the ordinary sense, i. e., as used in metallurgy, where it denotes a change in crystal strucrture by some form of heat treatment. 4As used in the glass industry, annealing means the. removal of vstresses and strains set. up

by a temperature gradient in the glass after the glass' articlehas been formed. For example, if a glass bottle after being blown werevallowed to,` cool unhindered in Ithe air the probabilities are that it would be shattered by the stresses produced within the glass wallsbefore it reached room tempera-` ture. "If by any chance it did' manage to cool down, it would be susceptible to fracture `at the slightest `variation in temperature.V

There is forvevery type of glass an annealing range of temperature.v The lower limit of this' `range is defined as the temperature at which internal adjustment of strain and stress by internal flow practically'ceases, or' as the temperature at which annealing first proceeds very slowly, and the upper limit is defined as that temperature at which internal stress and strain are adjusted or' eliminated practically instantaneously,'but at Awhich temperature the, glass object being annealed will not retain its form to a satisfactory degree.

The upper limit of the annealingrangesis Ireferredto in "ordinary practice as the an' nealing temperature, and theprocess of annealing glass as heretofore practiced consists in heating the glass objects momentarily to this high temperature at which all, the internal stress and strain disappear practically instantaneously, and then cooling the lobjectsvery slowly to a temperature at which they can be handled.k y

."Glas's objects in being cooled from the temperature corresponding to thel upper an- PaocEssroF ANNEALING GLASS.

Application led October 11,v 1922. Serial No. 593,902.

nealing range, to the temperature corresponding to the lower annealing range, necessarily acquire some internal stress and strain unless the cooling be carried out innitely slowly, which is of course not practical. This will be understood by assuming that a yglass fobject when at the highest anhealing temperature is uniformly heated throughout, and as it cools there 4is `necessarily va temperature gradient fromv the hotter inside vtothe cooler outside, which sets upa stress and strain corresponding to tension in the outside ylayersand compression in the' interior, which stress and strain are" eliminated oradjusted by internal flow more slowly as the glass cools, lbecause ,of the necessary viscosity or resistance to flow as the .temperaturelowers.

Bottles are nearlyV alwaysstrained at some point in their` production. The glass comes from the melting furnace at about 2000 while in a very plasticy state, and is dropped into an iro-n moldwhich is at a. very considerable less temperature, probably Iaround 600. To this chilling el'ect on the outside skin of the bottle is added the'chilling effect ofthe relatively cold air usedvin blowing the glass to the .forni of the mold. Thus a temperature gradient is set up from' both sides to the inner partof the glass walls and strains result. .Thesev particular strains might be removed automatically if the glass were allowed to stand for a sufficient length of time at the temperature of .the inner part of the wall, but the bottle is now removed from the mold and placed on the conveyor where air currents, which can only chill the outside of the bottle, strike it. Other influences are also prevalent, but they produce the same type of strain and are Itreated in the same manner as, the strains described above.

Hitherto the. process of annealing glass was as follows: The temperature necessary to cause the `immediate disappearance of strains is just short ofthe softening point. This naturally varies with different glasses, dueto different chemical compositions and so must be'udetermined for every glass. rThe very slowly cooled to room temperature. ,As`

far as can be determined no actual curves have ever been plotted for this cooling. If

that le l80`feet in length. f

the bottles failed tof-'annea'l innew its'v length would probably be extended-as it would vbeFassumed--rthat 4the lehr'was -too short andconsequently that .the ware cooled' tooraplidly This is evidenced by the. fact practice from 50.130

rsf are found in As a means of reducing the time of 'I anthe maximum annealing temperature... is in nealing, and. insuring a roper annealingof.

lehr

ample, in tests whichI have made with a glass'v such as is ordinarily. used in bottles,

excess of 1000 Fahrenheit. Bykeeping the temperature below maximum` annealing temperature,.-the adjustment of-"strains an stresses naturally occurs .rather slowly, and at the end of a reasonable lapse of time, say

fifteen minutes, there will. still be present temporary stresses or strains." I'then cool 68 per minute, until the lower annealing vtemperature is reached, which inthe specic l l instance illustrated herein would be a proimately 800. .Beyondf this point t e cooling is'carried out as rapidlyas the me.s

chanical strength ofthe glass will permit.' AThe result of this rapid Icooling is to remove vor neutralize the temporary stresses or 40 nace will permit -until"1000 is reached strains remaining' in the glass at the end- I of thefirst stagesof'the process. The temperature curve for a 25 foot sec- 'tion' of'lehr is shown in the accompanying The temperature is then held constant; -at

this point for 15'. minutes and the cooling .until`800. .From 800 the cooling rateis increased, and increased progressivelyl untilthe .-temperature is 500. The doors of the furnace are now opened and the bottle a1- lowed .to cool off infthe air. .The only precaution to be taken for the cooling after ,500

is not to allow'the 'bottle to lcool so rapidly that a 'temporary strain of suiiicientmagni- .tude will be introduced as to cause fracture as was explained previously.

To apply this curve 1n practice the step is to determine'the capacity, in pounds per hour, that the lehr should handle. The

. only other data for the design is the length of' time for .the-annealing to takef place.

Fromthese two factors the length, :width and speed ofthe conveyor can be calculated. ',Thelength is the distance in the furnace in which the .temperaturefis controlled and i does'not include that necessary to cool the bottles from 5009 to room tem rature.. An

elowl lf'lhe. annealing-section of .the

curve-allows a maximum variation of only plus -or minus 10` from the true curve and -tion of stress and 'Strain at .fthe lower'annealing temperature which is ofsuch nature. and magnitude that it Awill be` .entirely elim-inatedrby the-elimination of the teml perature' gradient which 'is -efected by the 'complete cooling ofthe glass. Sucha 'condition of stress4 and strain is known asl a temporarv stress and strain, and-is the same as that which would be imparted to the completely annealed and unstr'ained glass ob- 'jects in heating from atmospheric tem .pcrature to the lower. annealing temperaals.v

ture if the objects were heated atthe same I rate and conditions as is found in the coolthls because it wouldr be possible'byheat# ing the4 glass slowly to arrive at'the same .mg vsection of my process. `I have added the glass ob]ectat a rather rapld rate, say

point withoutinternal strain. 4The choice l o f this cooling rate is further predicated-upon the nature of the glass and the upper anf-I nealing temperature, and the. time' during which it is maintained, and must be determined by trial for each class of glass.

It should be understood that the coolin rate of 6 Fahrenheit' per minute which employ from the upper to the lower annealing temperature is a very rapid rate of cooling compared with present practice, and

this rapid irate -of cooling is an important 'feature of my invention, because it naturally results in a reduction of the total annealing tlme; but 'it is also 4an essential .factor in imparting the natureand extent of stre started at a uniform rate of 6 per` mmute vIn strain at the lower annealing temperaturewhich I have defined above yas temporary stress and strain.

It will be noticed that contrary v to .priorl-V practice the whole annealing curve is controlled very closely. This is not only necessary for this typel of an annealing curve. but also it gives information as towhere to look for trouble if the bottles should not anneal for [some cause or other.

In other" words if the 'bottles are not annealed it means that `some part of the cycle is not the instruments placed at the proper interjvals throughout the lehr it is possible to tell'which section ofthe curve is not up to the proper'place and the necessary correction's can be made. Ifthe furnace is au tomatically controlled such troubleis'hard- 1y ever experienced. y

With this' method, the bottle'issues from the lehr three hours from the time that it was put in. This is aconsiderable saving of time over the older types, some of them taking as long as 10 hours for the anneallng.

Due to the automatic control the annealing is always the same and the product can be depended upon to be perfectly annealed. Consequently there is no breakage.

Asthere are no gases of combustion the bottles issue from the lehr bright and clean'.v They are also as sterile as it is possible toproduce bottles on a commercial scale.

This curve is to be applied to the annealing of glass such as is used in the manufacture of bottles, containers, etc. This kind of glass generally comes within the following `chemical composition:

80 to 60% silica, 25 to 10% soda,,20 to 5% lime, and varying amounts of alumina and magnesia up to 10%.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure b y Letters Patent is:

1. The method of annealing glass which 'consists in irst heating to a temperature less than the maximum annealing temperature, maintaining this temperature for a length of time sufficient to partially remove internal stress and strain, cooling rapidly to the lowest annealing temperature of the glass being treated, and thereafter cooling more rapidly, to atmospheric temperature, whereby the internal stress and strain existing at the end of the heating stage will loe substantially neutralized during the cooling stage.

2. The method of annealing glassware which consists in quickly heating the glass to a temperature of approximately 1000 F., maintaining this temperature for approximately 15 minutes and thereafter cooling the glass at the rate of 6 per minute.

3. .The method of annealing glassware which-consists in quickly heating the glass to a temperature of approximately 1000 F., maintaining this temperature for approximately 15 minutes, thereafter cooling the glass at the rate of 6 per minute un- .til 800 is reached and then increasing the rate of cooling.

KENNETH M. HENRY. 

